In the absence of any theoretical guidance, a solution to the question of what is the appropriate functional form for an import demand model can only be found empirically. Examines this question in the context of UK motor vehicle imports by applying a range of tests of functional form to two,...

We consider the effect on the degree of exchange rate pass-through of the exchange rate regime in operation. We test the hypothesis that pass-through will be lower under a float as firms may be reluctant to pass appreciations or depreciations on to their customers when there is a strong chance...

Most Latin American economies ended the twentieth century further behind the United States (in terms of productivity) than they had been in 1950. We investigate whether this reflects the effect of occasional economic setbacks or a systematic tendency to fall behind the United States. This is...

The uncovered interest parity (UIP) condition has been the subject of a considerable amount of research. Many of these studies, however, have either measured exchange rate expectations indirectly and/or have not considered the issue of data stationarity. Both of these issues have the potential...

New Zealand's current defence strategy, first expressed in NZ Government (1991), is one of "self-reliance in partnership". We outline the country's defence policy in historical context, examine its current defence expenditure and capabilities, and document the genesis of recent major changes in...

Pippenger (2011a) proposed a solution to the longstanding forward-bias puzzle that attracted several comments, to which he has recently replied (Pippenger, 2011b). In this rejoinder it is argued that the points Pippenger raises in defence of his solution do not effectively rebut the concerns...

In a recent paper in this journal, Atesoglu argued that the reduction in the rate of economic growth in the United States since 1973 was largely due to an increase in the income elasticity of demand for imports, following Thirlwall's law. The purpose of this paper is to show that the evidence...

Chong et al. (2008) found only limited support for the income convergence hypothesis among 15 OECD nations using a nonlinear unit root test. We find considerably greater evidence of convergence by allowing for breaks in the test's time trend.

The results of previous time-series studies of the income convergence hypothesis indicate that practically no African economies are systematically closing their income gap with the rich world. This implies that almost the entire continent is not ‘developing’ in the literal sense of the term....